Why the US isn't ready for clean energy

Making clean energy isn’t enough: We also have to move it.

In the near future, the energy made in the US is going to be much greener. The country’s current goal is for solar plants alone to make nearly half of US electricity by 2050. But we can’t just build solar plants where coal and gas plants used to be. They have to be built where it's… sunny. And wind turbines have to be built where it’s windy. The problem is, that’s not always where the people who need the power are.

The distance from energy source to energy need is about to get a lot bigger. And the US is going to need more high-voltage transmission lines. A lot more. As soon as possible. While solar plants can be built relatively fast, high-voltage transmission projects can take up to 10 years. So experts say we need to start proactively building them, right now.

Sources and further reading:

[sirdestructor]

Canadian living north of Vermont here: The reason you import energy from Quebec is that our energy is super cheap and only comes from renewables as we rely on hydro energy at 100%. We have been producing extra power for years already and sell our extra to the US ever since.

[TheIronArmenianakaGIHaigs]

Renewable energy is now cheaper than most fossil fuel energy. The fossil fuel industry is doing everything they can to slow down renewable energy distribution and adoption so they don't lose out on their investments.

[SkinnyPen]

"We will need about $320 Billion in investments." To put that in perspective, that is half the united states' military budget EVERY YEAR. Take it how you want, but I believe $320 billion is cheap with that considered.

[lucasmiller]

I really encourage people to look at the good of nuclear power. From disasters like chernoble and the Tsunami in Japan it’s easy to be scared, but that was a really long time ago and technology has made reactors so much safer

[dagoff]

Excellent presentation. I wish all Americans could see this, understand it and have the will to take appropriate action. It is SO SAD that we are so divided and so poorly trained to think critically to make informed decisions that are in the best interest of all of us.

[BruceWayne-qebs]

Just Imagine if the US had used the money that was spent on "War on Terrorism" for this

[Maitch]

It is actually what we have in Northern Europe, an energy exchange called Nord Pool.
The countries are connected to each other through high voltage power lines and it works really well. So it doesn't matter what the origin of the energy is (wind, solar, nuclear, gas or hydro), it is all put on the market and sold to the lowest price at the moment.
Denmark and Germany are some times hitting more than a 100% power from wind, so it is good that the excess power go to good use.

[aaronkazda]

Can we also talk about how important nuclear energy will be in this transition; and how solar panels are 10-15% efficient and have to be changed every 20-30 years which means lots of rare metals leaking into vulnerable communities and the environment. The future is mass transit, walkable cities and nuclear

[Ricky_]

Fun fact: Bulington, Vermont became the first US city to run on 100% renewable energy in 2014

[charles-libenard]

US should just look upnorth for a great model. Quebec is the #1 standard when it comes to efficient and stable grid. The use of 735kV lines makes it able to transport 4 times the amount of power of a 315kV line, while having less loss in power. There is also a lot of effort put into stabilising the grid in case something goes wrong at a plant.

[Patrick_]

I'm surprised they didn't talk about the economics of buying and selling electricity. The best way to get electricity from renewable energy from the producing areas to where people live is by making it as cheap and easy to exchange as possible. That's how solar electricity from Arizona can provide power to Illinois when it's not windy and vice versa when it's cloudy in Arizona. However that means states can't make money when they export the electricity, which hurts their economy. Pretty big factor in why the US isn't ready for clean energy.

[jamesshaw]

I love how you mentioned the fact that our electricity usage will go up, I haven't heard anyone mention that.

[elijaha]

Why take the half-step towards sustainability by using electric cars when we can go all the way and use hybrid buses, and electric trains? I understand that even if excellent public transportation is created, some people need cars, but better public transit would help reduce car usage.

[chakigun]

As a renown philosopher once said, "YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS"

[mooodeang]

I work for Hitachi Energy as an electrical engineer, look into HVDC transmission lines, that's what I'm currently working on 😊

[michaelphippen]

Really educational thank you!

I'd love to see a video on how localized energy storage would impact this problem. If most consumers are generating and storing their own power, the grid will be handling a lot less of it

[Asgoga]

As a Lithuanian i hope you guys manage to overcome any issues that impede the progress for renewable green energy. Here in Lithuania we already made huge progress on green energy before whole Paris Conference and we now on track to meat all of our and EU goals by 2030 and 2050.

[FinancialShinanigan]

If we need a greener future, most politicians need to be replaced.

[rjj]

In my country South Africa, a reasonably large country, we have a very well interconnected national grid with high voltage power lines as most of our electricity historically came from one province (to the far east of the country), where all the coal mines are. These lines span and supply far major cities like Cape Town 2000km to the west. Our national grid lines also travel as far north as Central Africa as we are the largest producer and supplier of electricity on the continent.

We have technology from decades back called high voltage direct current lines which bring electricity to our central capital Pretoria from our hydropower station at the top of Mozambique.

I guess we are fortunate to have the existing high capacity national grid infrastructure to assist us in the roll out of our new renewable energy plants.

[holycaketree]

I think the solution is to also look at smaller energy producers. If you put solar on most rooftops and add some energystorage to the houses you could already generate a lot of power and make the grid more stable